Natural Dentistry

Russ Tanner, President of Herb Allure and his great story!

Just in case you’re interested, the dentist who replaced my fillings is Ray Behm, Natural Dentistry.  As you’ll read in the story, not only is he an excellent dentist, but is extremely knowledgeable about the issue of amalgams and mercury toxicity (and no, I don’t receive any compensation for saying so). 

We set up an appointment with Dr. Behm for Thursday July 13th for a consultation and x-rays.  We also set up an appointment for the actual removal on the 16th (Sunday).  I was impressed that the Dr. would work on Sundays.

The first impression we had from Dr. Behm’s office was how the receptionist—Mercedes—was exceptionally knowledgeable and helpful.  This was not necessarily uncommon, though, as we called several other offices who’s staff were very helpful too.

My partner Laura and I must have kept her on the phone, drilling her with questions, for over 40 minutes, the first time we called!  Mercedes never missed a beat.  I was particularly impressed with the fact that the others in the office seemed equally well-informed (we talked to someone else soon after), and I was impressed with the fact that this office used special x-ray equipment that uses only 1/5th the amount of radiation as a conventional machine.  That’s important to me and showed that this office really is concerned with keeping up with the latest stuff and protecting their patients!

When we met with the Dr. Behm on Thursday, we were very impressed.  Laura and I were late because our truck broke down on the way.  The taxi driver told us we had “good karma” because he almost never hit all the green lights on Drew street.

I was encouraged with the attitude of the personnel that worked with the dentist.  Trudy promptly took us in for our X-rays.  I could tell that she took a real pride in her work.  She narrated for me as she did all her stuff and seemed to be proud to be using the “good” type of x-ray equipment in the office.  She also was exceptionally knowledgeable about the whole amalgam/mercury thing.  It quickly became apparent to me that the people in this office really were “into” what they do.  I like that… I like that a lot!  Even their computer screen-savers had a scrolling message that said, “Dr. Behm is the Best Dentist!”  I’d never seen anything like that before.

When I met with Dr. Behm, Laura sat in.  This was honestly like no other dentist appointment I’ve had before.  He narrated us through his entire initial inspection of my mouth showing strengths, weaknesses and explaining the causes and solutions.  He brought things to my attention that I’d never been aware of. 

Naturally, Laura and I drilled the dentist with questions and more questions.  I appreciated his mixture of kindness and frankness.  We shared with him what we had learned from our research (which he was obviously familiar with) and he replied by complementing our information with even more information from other sources.  He would often name the sources as he spoke about preferred methods of treatment, showing us that he obviously keeps up on all the latest research.

I honestly thought we’d go in and end up teaching some poor dentist a thing or two.  We often do… you know, we are in the field of research.  We have our noses in it all the time.   But this was not the case with Dr. Behm.  He shared a lot of information with us that we had not even heard of.  He was familiar with the work and research of several different doctors and even shared with us some of the apparent contradictions in each of their preferred methods of treatment.

During the session, the Behm performed kinesiology (muscle testing) on both of us.  This went on for over an hour!  During this time, the dentist tested different materials, although he often tends towards 4 that are generally considered to be really safe.  Laura tested good for DiamondLite, while I was among the 15% who don’t do so well with it.  I tested well for another one of the four well-known safe materials.

Please note that, although I don’t personally practice kinesiology, I know that there a many who do and claim to have tremendous results with it.  It is my personal preference to stay close to good science (there is a lot of politically-motivated “bad science” out there), but I fully understand the importance of allowing others to practice their conscience.  After all, I once believed that herbal supplements were quackery (even though I had nothing good to base that opinion on).  Now, the quality of my live is greatly enhanced by them.

After we were done, we ended up talking for awhile with Mercedes (who turned out to be the dentist’s wife).  She showed us a bunch of the books and videos that she keeps in the office to share with visitors.  This is an informed office!  And I might also add, I don’t think I’ve ever seen such organization.  This was one of the few offices—of any kind—where I’ve seen this level of organization . . . everything in its place!

Well, needless to say, by the time we left the office we were confident we had made a good decision.  Neither one of us were looking forward to Sunday (who looks forward to going to the dentist?), but we were comfortable with having Behm perform the work and very anxious to get the mercury out!

This is an edited excerpt from Russ’ whole story at http://herballure.com/HotTopics/MyMercuryStory.html